FBI Director James Comey is blaming the increase in violent crime in some cities on the scrutiny and criticism of law enforcement officials.

On Tuesday, Roland Martin, former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder, and the NewsOne Nowpanel discussed Comey’s comments and his explanation that increasing crime rates are a result of cops being afraid to do their jobs because they don’t want to be video taped.

Martin told the panel, “This is Comey making excuses.” He added, “What he (James Comey) is essentially saying is, ‘Hey, we’re afraid we might get busted on video, so we don’t want to police’” the streets of America.

Martin then referenced the brutal slamming and dragging of an African-American teenage girl at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina when he suggested law enforcement officials are deciding not to do their jobs, “as if the only option you have is to do what Officer [Ben] Fields did to this girl, and that is somehow get aggressive.”

Former Gov. Wilder told Martin, “One of the problems here is the law.”

“What is happening in America today is that there is a presumption of guilt on behalf of the people who are being offended and a presumption of innocence on behalf of the officers. It is a total reversal of what the presumption is. The presumption is innocence of all persons until some proof is offered and in these instances, you have the presumption so far ahead, that action is taking place and it puts everybody on the defensive — it has to change,” Douglas said.

“The American attitude towards how people are treated has to change, period,” he continued.

Later Martin said, “What they (police officers) have been doing for years is now being chronicled and they can’t handle the fact America is now seeing their actions.”